As you have all likely noticed, Graph Paper Press has undergone a few substantial changes recently, both in presentation, on our support forum and membership systems. We (Yes, I say we. GPP is no longer a one man show! More on this below.) have also committed ourselves to a new subscription based service to better serve our members. The changes also include improvements to our themes and expanding our child theme selection to our include our most popular themes from 2008.

Lets back up a bit
About six months ago, I realized that the site was becoming much larger that I had ever intended it to be. My initial reason for starting Graph Paper Press was to move my WordPress-related activities away from my personal Web site, http://thadallender.com. My personal site is and was largely a portfolio Web site using WordPress as the CMS. The move proved to be a good thing. Graph Paper Press has grown and grown and grown largely because of our free WordPress theme selection. More free themes are planned for the very near future.

About four months ago, it became clear that I needed to make a decision: Either sell Graph Paper Press or bring others on board who shared my passion for WordPress and design to help run the Web site. For example, one of my free themes reached 10,000 downloads. One month later, two more free themes reached over 10,000 downloads. That many theme downloads translates into many, many forum questions, hundreds of emails about customization, phone calls requesting theme services, etc. It has been an eye-opening experience. During this time, I also got married! And, moved from Kansas City to Washington, D.C. It was simply way too much for one person to handle.

So today, I would like everyone to say hello to Chandra Maharzan, my newest collaborator at Graph Paper Press. Chandra is a seasoned, thoughtful designer and is a great addition to Graph Paper Press.

More Child Themes
That’s right, we’re releasing more child themes for Modularity, our popular theme framework. F8 is now available for members as a child theme for Modularity. This is a beta release. Members can download the F8-Child beta theme in their member-only dashboard. Next up is converting F8-Remixed and Gridline Magazine into child themes for Modularity. All remaining themes will be free.

New Support Forum
We are slowly transitioning to a new forum so that our subscribers and members don’t have to re-register for the forum. The new forum will largely be focused around providing support for our members. We plan on importing all posts from the old forum into the new support forum.

New Membership Area
My favorite change to Graph Paper Press is our new membership dashboard. This area allows members to download themes from one central location and manage accounts independently.

Our Philosophy
Our approach to WordPress and design remains unchanged. We believe that your website should be about your content, not our design. This is why we prefer clean, minimalist designs, a theme options page packed with configurable options, design alternatives, and homepage settings. We also value innovation, member relationships and helping extend the publishing possibilities using WordPress. Happy blogging!